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Considered a "regionalist" writer, like Kate Chopin and fellow New Englander Sarah Orne Jewett, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman began writing at a time in America's history when literature was becoming the first "culture industry," and she found a growing market for her work in popular magazines. This collection shows Freeman's many modes--romantic, gothic, and psychologically symbolic--as well as her use of pathos and sentimentality, of dry reserve, and of humor, satire, and irony. These last are most vividly expressed in The Jamesons, a series of sketches about village life reprinted for the first time since the turn of the century. Also included here are stories that center on questions of women's integrity, courage, and, often, privation; that explore cultural constructions of masculinity; and that dramatize the interconnection of rural New England with modern culture and commerce. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A book I return to over and over.
I'm a big fan of Mary Wikins Freeman. I have over the years collected all of her books of short stories...this is one is my favorites and I have read it over and over again. It is a little collection of stories about people who have found themselves alone..and what making peace with and surrendering to that state of being brings into their lives. The gentle simplicity of their world written by Ms Freeman in her beautiful style, draws you in and keeps you thinking about these characters long after the story is over. My copy of this book is a first edition, over 100 years old now and is so fragile I have to treat it with kid gloves.... so I am very happy to see a reprinting of these stories in paperback form so I can enjoy reading them over and over again for may more years to come.

Wonderful Collection of Stories
This is the best collection of stories I've read since Three Lives, by Gertrude Stein. Very moving, beautiful stories of 19th-century women. ... Read more

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Decades before Peyton Place unbuttoned the straitlaced New England of the popular imagination, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's Pembroke (1894) captivated readers with its realist account of the dark underside of an insular New England village.The compelling novel centers on three couples whose relationships are thwarted by family strife, repressed emotions, strong-willed pride, and religious self-righteousness.

Pembroke begins with a heated political argument between Barney Thayer and Cephas Barnard, the father of Barney's betrothed, Charlotte Barnard.The angry Cephas throws his prospective son-in-law out of the house and, because of his immense pride, Barney refuses to apologize, even though it means he cannot marry Charlotte.The Thayers and Barnards become locked in a clash of wills, and the broken engagement reverberates throughout the village, ultimately affecting the relationships of two other couples in the town.After years of seemingly interminable suffering, all of the ill-fated lovers are eventually united, but the reunions are bittersweet.

In sharp contrast to the romantic literary tradition, Pembroke vividly depicts characters doomed to inherit the unhappiness of their ancestors.This dramatic and realistic portrayal of rural nineteenth-century New England life and Puritan ethos will reintroduce modern readers to a significant regionalist woman writer. ... Read more

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This work explores the multiple tensions at the core of American writer Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's life and work. The book traces Freeman's evolution as a writer, showing how her work offers a feminist analysis of the lives of 19th-century American women. ... Read more

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Although a prolific and popular writer in her day, Mary Wilkins Freeman has only recently been rediscovered and reevaluated as a realistic recorder of the status and sensibility of the New England woman in the early years of this century.

Women form the backbone of her stories. Within a framework tightly controlled by patriarchal and religious tradition, Freeman's women strive for an understanding of the roles assigned to them. Through their relationships and responses, they test the limits of their freedom and learn the moral and personal consequences of rejecting or acquiescing to the roles the larger community has imposed on them.

The rebellious woman became a key these in Freeman's stories and a major image in her gallery of fictional portraits of women. A Web of Relationship reveals how she sharply delineates the lives and personalities of women who accept of reject the ideal Victorian code of "true womanhood" as mother and wife. This study of Freeman's stories throws light upon the other women her rich fictional narratives portray--women who are rejected by men and who feel their lives are thus worthless and their futures bleak; women frustrated yet submissive to the confines of marriage; women whose sole means of solidarity with other women is through self-aggrandizing gossip; women who must deal with day with the twin hardships of advancing age and poverty.

Freeman's unifying theme is the web of relationships connecting every type of New England woman struggling towards selfhood despite straitened circumstances and repression by family and community. Freeman's collective portraits of New England women not only give insight into her art but also reveal her penetrating vision of women frustrated by the confusing and confining roles forced upon them in this time and place. ... Read more

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To find more information about Rowman and Littlefield titles, please visit www.rowmanlittlefield.com. ... Read more

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This reproduction was printed from a digital file created at the Library of Congress as part of an extensive scanning effort started with a generous donation from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.The Library is pleased to offer much of its public domain holdings free of charge online and at a modest price in this printed format.Seeing these older volumes from our collections rediscovered by new generations of readers renews our own passion for books and scholarship. ... Read more

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These stories centre on questions of women's integrity, courage and privation; explore the idea of masculinity; and dramatize the relationship between rural New England and modern culture and commerce. Also included is "The Jamesons", a series of sketches about village life. ... Read more

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Studies in Short Fiction Series Editors: Gary Scharnhorst, University of New MexicoEric Haralson, State University of New York at StonybrookThe coverage offered in Twaynes Studies in Short Fiction series extends beyond authors written works to discuss the writers personal life taken from interviews, essays, memoirs, and other biographical material; the critical reception to his or her work; and an overview of how the subjects output fits into the larger world of literature.Each volume is designed as a complete and self-contained companion to a particular writers short fiction, and will invigorate any reading of the writers works. Further enhancing its value as a reference work, each volume contains a chronology, selected bibliography, and an index, and library bindings with cloth covers insure maximum longevity. Writing mostly about New England at the turn of the century, Freemans prolific output includes novels, plays, poems, essays, childrens works, and movie scripts.Yet it is her short storiessome two hundred and fifty of them, gathered in fourteen collections during her lifetimethat forged Freemans literary reputation and fuel a continuing interest in her work.Her frequently anthologized A New England Nun, The Revolt of Mother, and A Village Singer,offer in compact, forceful style female protagonists with fierce dilemmas.Included in this volume are Freemans own observations on her fiery art, as well as four respected critical writings on A New England Nun.Highly recommended for academic, public, and school libraries. CHOICETwaynes Studies in Short Fiction series offers concise, sensitive surveys of the works of important practitioners of the short story. BooklistTwayne Publishers has done it again.These handsome volumes should be considered not only for the college library, but also for students, teachers, and devotees of the short story. Studies in Short Fiction ... Read more

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Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's tales for and about children arose out of cultural constrictions formulated by a strict adherance and obediance to the Puritan values embedded in New England history. At the time she wrote these stories, New England was experiencing a population decline fuelled by massive changes in industry and farming, and the effects of war. With young, industrious men pouring out of rural New England, Freeman concentrated on the women and the weak men who were left behind. Role models for boys were hard to find and respectable males for girls were few. Consquently, the lines dividing the gender roles got blurred in Freeman's world and she set out to redraw the lines by redefining the roles of men and women for children. This text not only discusses the impact of such cultural and historical forces on gender in her writing, but it also catagorizes both collected and uncollected tales by grouping together the products of Freeman's gender instruction. ... Read more